I have a 2004 XC90 -- 5 cylinder engine, FWD. The turbo has started to malfunction and my friend/mechanic says it needs to be replaced. I also need to do the timing belt as the car is at 107K miles. So between the two jobs I'm looking at 2-3K (USD) ... at least. I just spoke with my uncle who successfully removed and bypased a turbocharger on a different volvo (an s70, I believe). He indicated that he removed the turbocharger, installed a plate blank over the hole, and capped and/or connected the hoses. He says the vehicle works fine, though it has less power. Anyone done this on an XC90? Any thoughts?

 

Your not serious the lack of power to wieght ratio would make it impossible to drive safely on the roads.......more logical though buy a used turbo though car-parts.com starting at $200. Check the belt and see if it needs to be replaced or if you can wait a few months. Pick up a repair manual and do the turbo swap yourself in a weekend. I'm not to familar with the XC timing belt? Does it have a belt or a chain? are you just changing the serpentine belt? if so just pick on up for around $20-$50 and use the manual again. I changed this belt in my other cars and it to time at once you have done it once maybe an hour and couple of beers the first time you try it.

 

Yes change the timing belt. https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...autions-15169/
Don't block off the turbo. Your car may drive fine without it however if the ecu is not seeing a particular amount of air it can cause running rich issues.

 

My mechanic and I decided yesterday to replace the turbo with a used one. He too thought the decrease in power would be too substantial. We found one that had been pulled from a wrecked vehicle with very low mileage. Won't be cheap, but hopefully this Turbo will last. Now must learn how to properly cool the engine after driving. We'll also do the timing belt, water pump, etc., while its in the shop. Also ordered an upper engine mount as the current one is broken. This too seems to be a known problem. Will repost once work is done to report. Thanks again for the feedback. I just hope I can get another 3-4 years out of this vehicle without major repairs. Will probably have to replace tires and breaks during that time again, but hopefully no other major repairs.

 

So I had hoped the used turbocharger we put on would last 3-4 years. Now, 3.5 years later it is failing. Mechanic has had a number of XC90s with turbocharger failures in the past year. Strange thing is that there is, yet again, no sign of smoke due to the turbocharger failure (ie smoke out the tailpipe). No major signs of oil leakage, so looks like the oil is being burned and then scrubbed by the catalytic converter.

 

turbos can generally be rebuilt if the blades are not damaged (which they usually aren't it is usually just seals that leak and bearings which get loose). it is not difficult and you can buy rebuild kits for most common turbos (I paid an amateur who had done couple of rebuilds $100 plus $80 for parts on my saab and it works fine). if you saved the old turbo you could rebuild it and have no down time. I ended up buying a core on ebay for $100 which I had rebuilt so there was no downtime.

 

Out of curiosity, what kind of oil are you using and at what change interval? Regular dino, or synthetic. Personally I run full syn in all my cars, but IMO it is direly important to run full syn to protect the turbo and I change it every 5K miles.

 

Yup, turbo is being rebuilt by a company that specializes in such things. Wish it was just a $100 job.

 

Yup, running synthetic.